New Jersey Devils: 5 Right Wings To Target In Free Agency

Finding a right winger will be difficult for the New Jersey Devils this offseason.

Right wing is not a position with a lot of options in this year’s free agency. To give you a clue as to who’s the best available, the three highest-paid upcoming free agents are Ryan Callahan, Nathan Hornton, and David Clarkson. None of them played a single game of hockey in a long, long time. That’s bad news for the New Jersey Devils because they could use some more talent on the right side.

As currently constructed, the Devils have Kyle Palmieri as the lockdown, first-line right wing. Joey Anderson, who is built like a perfect third-line forward, was forced to play on the second line at the end of the season. Nikita Gusev spent some time at right wing, and that was a plus for the position, but it would be ideal to keep him at left wing. The fourth line would always change but finished with Janne Kuokkanen, who the Devils just acquired in the Sami Vatanen trade.

The Devils don’t have many options coming in the prospect pool, either. There’s Nathan Bastian, Nick Merkley, and Nikita Popugaev who naturally play that position. There are a ton of options at left wing, including recently acquired Nolan Foote, Mikhail Maltsev, Graeme Clarke, Aarne Talvitie, Fabian Zetterlund, Marian Studenic, and older prospects like Brett Seney. The pool is just much deeper, which means there’s a higher likelihood that someone will come out of it.

That means, despite the much weaker pool for players, the Devils might feel the need to spend big money in free agency on the few available options. These five players could be a fit for the Devils at their weakest forward position.